This invention relates to a switching type regulator which provides a regulated power supply.
Switching regulators maintain a substantially constant voltage and/or current to the load by periodically interrupting the power supplied by the unregulated source and by using a choke which attempts to maintain continuous output current. A flyback or commutating diode clamps the choke input to ground to maintain continuous output current when the switch interrupts the power supplied to the regulating circuit. As voltage levels and switching frequencies increase the switching losses increase substantially, limiting the output capacity of the voltage regulator at high operating frequencies.
When the switch is conducting, power is delivered to the circuit. When the switch is not conducting there is no power delivered to the circuit by the unregulated input voltage. This results in a block of power followed by no power input. This severe fluctuation of input power and therefore current during the switching cycle results in conducted noise on the return line which is used for a reference point for most filtering.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a switching regulator that is operable at ultrasonic frequencies (above 20,000 Hz) with significantly reduced switching losses.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a switching regulator with reduced radio frequency interference.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a switching regulator with higher efficiency and an increased output capacity.